Main Task Evaluation: Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The size of my Masthead that I have used is typical in the genre that I have addressed in my product. Most classical brass band magazines use a large font to attract their audience. The font is also stereotypical for my target genre.

The size of my Masthead that I have used is typical in the genre that I have addressed in my product. Most classical brass band magazines use a large font to attract their audience. The font is also stereotypical for my target genre.

Another key convention of a brass band magazine would be the use of freebies. I decided to use this as it would address the audience in a ‘new light’. I decided to use a reversed out freebie as it would stand out at the bottom of my front cover.

Furthering to a key convention of my magazine I have used a 3 column layout throughout my project. From my research and planning I noticed that most brass band magazines use a 3 column layout, so I decided to follow this concept through to my work.

I have used sans serif fonts throughout my work as I decided to challenge the use of font in the work as I felt that using a serif font was too formal to brass band readers. The change makes the magazine feel less formal than brass band magazines used to be.

The use of a long shot as my main-sell is represented as a popular convention of a brass band magazine. The normal convention of a brass band magazine tends to have 1 or 2 models in the main-sell, I have developed this idea by using 3 models as it made the magazine stand out more.

I have decided to make my magazine multi-platform by including a website and email address. Following my research I noticed that most modern magazines include the use of multi-platform technology. I have decided to develop the use of multi-platform as I felt that by including as much multi-platform technology then the magazine would show that it is capable of using many different platforms. On the front cover of my magazine I decided to put the website address underneath the masthead, this developed the normal conventions of a brass band magazine as they see the website to be near the bottom of the page as it has less of importance than any other information on the page.

The double page spread includes many challenging items to the 'traditional' brass band magazine. The first being that I have decided to use a range of call out's , this challenges the way brass band magazines target their audience, I used the call outs as it made the key quotes more eye catching to read.

Another form that I used to develop brass band magazines included the use of 'runarround' with the text. I decided to use this as it looked more interesting to the readers of the magazine, also it got rid of unwanted backgrounds in the photograph.

The use of freebies challenged dominant ideology in a way that brass band audience members do not see themselves as 'freebie' takers. This was a large gamble but I feel that the way in which I presented was very good. The freebie design connotes cheap, class and fun.

The house-style colours for my magazine are, gold, silver, white and black. I decided to use the gold and silver to portray the use of brass. The black and white text were used to develop the convention used in professional brass band magazines.